Miley Cyrus is known to be a cutter, Amanda Bynes is said to suffer from manic depression. In our celebrity driven culture, these young celebrities are caught on tape acting bizarre, or photographed by the paparazzi with scandalous pictures, or, they themselves are posting their own weird pictures, and random tweets that question their mental stability.

Recently, Bynes was photographed smoking weed in her car while driving through West Hollywood, while Cyrus was caught smoking a joint on a balcony. The Huffington Post wrote that Bynes was kicked out of a gym for smoking weed two days ago, and three days ago, the New York Daily News wrote that she was seen walking around New York with a blue scarf covering her head.

These previous notorious Disney Stars are quite frankly, losing it. And odd, weird, spiraling down behavior is at the forefront of the media.

Having said that, why can’t we capitalize on the opportunity to teach the younger generation about mental illness through celebrities that publically manifest a breakdown? Unfortunately, instead of addressing the possibility of self-medication, they are labeled pot heads. Unfortunately, their downward spiral becomes gossip, instead of a tool for education, and an opportunity for them to get psychiatric help.

It irks me that we have celebrities walking around with mental illnesses, yet, no one wants to address it. We need to have a cultural dialogue on mental health awareness and we live in a modern age where we frequently get pictures, videos, tweets, and tapes exhibiting mental illness, yet, we don’t seem to get it.

If we are going to be a culture fueled by celebrity gossip, might as well utilize it to open the box for a discussion on mental health. The younger generation can learn from a generation of young celebrities that suffer from mental illness. Especially when it is constantly on display through social media.